Hi guy! I don´t know if you saw it in my previous post but here re a few old pics of my 1/72 I.A.-58 Pucara, I was my first model afer an almot 10 years brake, one day my dad gave me this kit as a present and that wake me up and never sptop modeling to this day.
The jit is the 1/72 special hobby, wich is to this date the most accurate models of this aircraft. This year the argentinean manufacturer Aconcagua will lunch to the market a resin, white metal, p.e 1/48 multimedia kit, now the only 1/48 is an expensive, much inaccurate resin kit (I can´t remember the brand) so I can´t wait for the Aconcagua kit!!
I’ve always liked the long, lean look of the Pucara, and yours is beautifully finished! I’ve come to really enjoy your builds in Argentine colors, Jeremias. Great work!
It’s all greek to me? Guy is in the jacuzzi but will return shortly! Nice work! I’ll have to ask or look up the history of that aircraft. I am shocked that I am unfamiliar with it.
Thanks Kevin and Frank! glaad you like it my Argentinean birds, and I have a long list of kits to build in the next years… Now i´m working in an A4-AR Fightinghawk 1/48, and the next build will be an P3-B Orion, Gloster Meteor M.k IV, and a IA-24 Calquin, so the next months will be a handful on modeling…
Aaron: The IA-58 Pucara (quechua word meaning fortress) was designed in Argentina by the Fabrica Militar de Aviones (military aircraft factory) it´s 1rst flight was august 20 1969, designed to operate in short and poor preparated runways, it´s primary objetives is to provide ground suport, anti-helicopter missions, and above all COIN duties.
Technical data:
.tripulation: 2
. lengt 14,25 m
. span 14,5 m
. power plant: 2 Turbomeca Astazou XVI-G.
. top speed: 520 Km/h
The plane saw action in the Malvinas/Falklands conflict and archived the only confirmed air to air argentine victory in the war, too observation andf ground atack missing. but in retrospective it´s participation in the war was unsucceful, many were detroyed in the ground, many were destroyed in the air and a few were captured in flight conditiones and shipped to the U.K. for evaluations…
well hope this information was good for you and if you need something more just let me know.
Many thanks for the info. I am even more surprised now because we used to have to know a list of about 120 Aircraft, the countries that used them , fin flashes extc. Odd that a ground attacker used in the Faulklands was not on the this. Thanks for teaching me something! [tup]
Thank you for posting Jeremias. That is a splendid build. I love the camo scheme as well. Very nice. Is the only kit available for a Pucara, 1/72? Id quite fancy building one in 1/48.
Airfix do a 1/72 Pucara. Essentially, it’s the plastic parts of the Special Hobby kit, and good value for £6.99. Aeroclub do white metal seats, u/c wheels, engine fronts and props for it.
I’d welcome Jeremias’ thoughts on the colour scheme. Airfix suggest Humbrol 65 Light Blue (close to RLM65) for the undersurfaces, Hu.121 (RAF close to RAF Light Stone) over Hu.90 (close-ish to RAF Sky ‘S’, maybe a touch darker) uppersurfaces. What colours diid you use, Jere?
Glaad you like it guy, there is a 1/48 kit, I can´t remember the brand, ti´s produced in England but it´s both expensive and inacurate.
Aconcagua (the same company who produces the tucano, and the pampa I built last year) will release this year a 1/48 multimedia kit, and for the pics I saw will be spectacular!!! I can´t wait…
Chris: there are a great deal of controversy sorrounding the pucara´s colours, I can´t remember wich were the colors recomendations in the SH intructions but are inaccurate, I mixed the colours to match some pics I saw…
The F.A.A. in those days din´t have a standar for painting so there are variations from plane to plane, from the darkest cammo shade to the lightest, here is an interesting link.
that link was very useful, and suggests that Airfix did get the colour call-outs more-or-less right. They were based on inspection of one of the Pucaras which the British Army brought back with them after the war. After testing, this was passed around a number of aviation museums including, IIRC, the Fleet Air Arm’s museum at Yeovilton, and is now at the North East England Aircraft Museum in Sunderland, Tyne & Wear.
